Snyder Farms president asks St. Joseph County to correct private ditch labeling amid data‑center concerns

The president of Arthur Snyder Farms Inc. told the St. Joseph County Drainage Board on Sept. 10, 2025, that a private drainage ditch running through his property is being mislabeled on county GIS maps as part of the Dixon Place Ditch and the Kankakee River, and asked the county to correct its records amid concerns about a proposed Microsoft data center nearby.

The issue matters, he said, because the ditch is private, created during construction of the ethanol plant in the early 1980s, and carried on an easement that leaves ownership with Snyder Farms. "It's important to Snyder Farms and our community that this be labeled correctly and recognized as a private waterway and not being labeled as a public waterway," he told the board, saying the incorrect labeling could affect how future dewatering or discharges are handled.

The speaker said he found screenshots on the county GIS site that identify the channel as the Dixon Place Ditch or the Kankakee, and that a quick online measurement showed an erroneously large length for the channel. He described a March 2024 incident when a sheen appeared on nearby…